Looking to inspire more children to enter aviation and aerospace careers, or just STEM fields in general, a Lakes Region nonprofit is holding its sixth year of ACE Academy summer camps.
WinnAero will hold sessions July 11 to 22 at Laconia Airport for students in third through 12th grades.
The eight weeklong camps are packed with experiments, field trips and the opportunity to fly a plane.
“It’s pretty exciting for a young kid,” said Don Morrissey, a WinnAero board member and retired Air Force pilot.
The camps are spearheaded by Dan Caron, WinnAero’s director of education and an engineering and technology teacher at Bedford High School.
The sessions are a combination of field trips, lab work, hands-on activities, guest speakers and flight simulations, plus the chance to fly a plane and tour a Blackhawk heliocopter, Caron said.
Laconia Airport has two fixed based operators – Sky Bright and Emerson Aviation – that both take the students on flights. One student is co-pilot to the certified flight instructor and one is a passenger. Once the pilot gets the small plane into the air, the student takes control for about 15 minutes. After landing, the pair of students switch places, much like driver’s ed, Caron said.
Depending on the sessions, there are field trips lined up to visit Pease Air Force Base’s air traffic control simulator and tower, Manchester-Boston Regional Airport’s fire station and maintenance garage, Boston Center air traffic control, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center’s helipad, the National Guard hanger in Concord, Nashua Community College’s mechanics program and several New Hampshire companies that engineer or manufacture aircraft parts.
“There’s so many different careers that have an aviation bent,” Caron said.
He said he tells students that airports are like small cities. They have pilots, yes, but also air traffic control, security, firefighters, food service workers and cleaners.
“They could sweep floors and look at planes if they wanted,” Caron said.
He said there is a shortage of skilled employees for aviation- and aerospace-related careers. FAA air traffic controllers must retire at 55, and many will need to be replaced, Caron said. There is also a shortage of commercial pilots, who are often former military pilots. Now, there are positions for unmanned aircraft operators, too.
“There’s just so many careers out there,” he said, and not enough qualified people to do them.
“I hope they get a passion for flying,” Morrissey said. He said it leads to good careers, an introduction to emerging technologies and wonderful opportunities for young people.
WinnAero is the creation of Bill Seed, a retired attorney and real estate broker. In 2009, he was inspired by the Iowa Children’s Museum’s “Dreams of Flight” exhibit, which had hands-on activities for children to try.
Concerned that students in the United States were falling behind in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields, he hoped to bring a similar museum to his community in the Lakes Region to foster curiosity and teach about aviation and aeronautics.
Gathering up friends and colleagues, Seed founded the Aviation and Aerospace Education Center at Winnipesaukee, calling it WinnAero for short. He was president for a number of years and recently stepped down to vice president.
The nonprofit hopes to show children that aviation and aerospace careers aren’t just pilots and astronauts. WinnAero’s goals include using the fields to teach STEM subjects, develop an understanding of other jobs in those fields, encourage students to study aerospace careers and do it all with an interactive approach.
“The whole thing is career awareness,” Caron said.
WinnAero also hosts workshops, led by Caron, for teachers to earn professional development credits in aviation and aerospace areas.
WinnAero is still working to fundraise to create the aviation museum Seed envisioned but has been hampered by high costs and uses the camps to achieve its mission meanwhile.
Morrissey joined the Air Force after graduating from College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. At the time, selective service was in place, so he thought he’d volunteer for what he wanted instead of being drafted.
Before joining the Air Force, he’d never been on an airplane.
“It’s a great experience feeling the wheels leaving the runway,” Morrissey said. “It fascinated me.”
He served in Vietnam as a B-52 bomber and helicopter pilot. After his initial service requirement was up, he elected to stay in the Air Force.
He flew helicopters out of Andrews Air Force base in Maryland until he retired after 25 years.
“It was a great career: At times very scary, at times a lot of hours just flying an airplane. . . but it was always fun.”
Caron has taught technology and engineering at several New Hampshire high schools and colleges for 36 years, as well as developing STEM curriculum.
While teaching technology in a room connected to a physics classroom, Caron overheard lectures on aerospace. He and the physics teacher eventually partnered to co-teach a class on space, building a shuttle simulation.
Students portrayed astronauts and mission control and did water training, and many got HAM radio licensing.
Caron is involved with the Air Force Association, and through that met retired Air Force Col. William Moran. Moran was a founding member of WinnAero and suggested Caron come to their meetings.
Caron had experience with the ACE Academy at Daniel Webster College, so when WinnAero created its summer camps, it looked to him.
Other WinnAero volunteers include retired math teacher Duke Kline, pilot and airframe mechanic John Seeler, pilot Marcy Dembiec, science teacher Karen Mitchell and Scott Davis, who is a retired HUOT Technical Center education administrator.
WinnAero’s summer camps started with just nine students in 2011.
Last year, nearly 80 slots were filled. This year, 42 students are already signed up, still with time to apply. Of those, about 12 to 15 are repeat campers, Caron said.
WinnAero will offer eight camps this summer at Laconia Airport.
There are two for elementary-aged students in third through fifth grades: one from July 11 to 15 and one from July 18 to 22. The program meets daily from 8:30 a.m. to noon. Cost is $200.
There are three strand camps for middle school students in sixth through eighth grade: pilot and air traffic control, pilot and search and rescue emergency services, and pilot and aerospace engineering and manufacturing. All run from July 18 to 22. There is also a middle school space academy from July 11 to 15 with topics on model rocketry, astronomy, spacecraft and space station design and remote sensing. The camps run from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Cost is $400.
There are two camps for high school students: one on piloting, aerospace engineering and unmanned aerial vehicles; and one on piloting, air frame and power plant mechanics, and unmanned aerial vehicles. Both run July 11 to 15 daily from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Cost is $400.
There is a $50 application fee for all programs, which is applied to the cost of the summer camp. Camps are limited to 10 students per session. For more information, visit winnaero.org.
(Sarah Kinney can be reached at 369-3324, skinney@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @sekwrites.)